How Does IoT Affect Jobs?

There is always a fear that technology will eliminate jobs. When the steam engine was invented in the late 1700's, people believed its arrival signaled the end of manual labour and thousands of hard-working individuals would be out of jobs. Instead, the steam engine created completely new jobs in new industries like railway systems and high-productivity factories. While the steam engine did eliminate some manual labour jobs, it created new jobs like machine operators, engineers and maintenance workers.

Nearly 250 years later, the case will be the same as we enter the 4th Industrial Revolution, the era of connectivity, the age of the Internet of Things. IoT will do exactly what technology does everywhere. It replaces low-skill jobs with high-skill jobs. Eventually, the Internet of Things will lead to widespread substitutes for simple, dangerous and repetitive jobs in areas such as manufacturing, administration, quality control and planning. IoT will lead to the creation of new jobs that will help organisations pioneer not only their own success, but the success of the industry as well.

Employees will be driven to learn new skills to remain relevant. New roles are already being created, such as Drone Operators, IoT Engineers and IoT Managers.